


The Lost

by lwise2019



Series: Mikkel's Story [51]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24046903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019
Summary: The lost will be found.
Series: Mikkel's Story [51]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536739
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	The Lost

Mikkel was up early, as was his wont. His mind immediately turned to safety.

_I set the sensors last night … but I didn't test them! Ten years of neglect, will they even work? I can't test them now; it'll wake the others. I didn't repair the fence either. And I didn't stand watch. We could all have been eaten in our sleep!_

_That'd be a good ending to the expedition, wouldn't it? Lose half the team back there, and the other half here, when we ought to be safe?_

_I'm slipping again. I've got to do better. I've got to protect them. At least I can fix the fence._

He slipped out quietly in the early light of dawn, armed with a roll of wire and his wire-cutters, and began to repair the fence, working quickly, pulling the cut sections together and rejoining them with twists of wire, tight enough that a grossling could not open them by pushing or pulling, but not so tight that a human being of ordinary strength could not undo them. It was only when he had finished and surveyed the result that he consciously realized what he'd done.

He rested his forehead against the fence, gazing blankly out into the cold silence of deserted Denmark. _They've got me doing it too. Thinking the boys are still out there. Fixing the fence so they can still get in._

_They're not out there. It would take a miracle for them to be still … there. I think you only get one miracle in a lifetime and mine, mine was the firebird. Sending the firebird may have killed Onni and it didn't save Tuuri or, in the end, Lalli and Emil. At least it saved Sigrun and Reynir. But that was my miracle and I won't get another._

Images rose before his mind's eye: Lalli and Emil. He allowed them for a few minutes before forcibly stopping himself and returning to his duties. Stepping back, he reached for a twist of wire and paused. _It doesn't matter. A strong troll can break through this fence anywhere. A giant can step over, and a swarm will just pile up against it until they spill over the top and just keep coming …_ He cut off _that_ memory.

_There are no grosslings around here. Look out there: the Army burned down everything within half a kilometer. There's no shelter out there for anything bigger than a kitten! The ghosts are gone; they're not going to drive a swarm against us. This place is as safe as any in the Silent World._

_Very well, the fence is fixed. Now what? I have to do **something.**_

He turned to study the compound. There were six bunkhouses, all the same size and presumably much alike. _If our sensors don't work, maybe I can find some that do. If I try to cannibalize one to fix ours, I'll probably just break them both … well, if I feel a need to cannibalize one, obviously they're broken anyway._

He started toward the nearest bunkhouse, then abruptly hastened his step, struck by a thought. _The Army didn't feed us **well** , but they definitely did better than tuna fish for every meal! Maybe the other foods are in the other bunkhouses!_

When he returned to their bunkhouse empty-handed, Reynir was already awake. “This place was provisioned by the Navy!” Mikkel growled. Pulling out a can of tuna fish and handing it to the Icelander, he added, “We have an ample supply. You may help yourself to whatever you want, whenever you want.”

* * *

To Mikkel's surprise, their sensors worked perfectly. He felt some relief in knowing that they had not been in grave danger despite his lapses.

By noon, Mikkel and Reynir had scrubbed the bunkhouse so thoroughly that it would have passed the most rigorous military inspection. Sigrun had folded and put away their spare clothes, forbidden by Mikkel to overexert herself in cleaning. They had all enjoyed the luxury of long hot showers, and a breakfast of tuna fish. After a lunch of more tuna fish, Mikkel proposed that the day would pass more quickly if they napped, and the other two, already feeling post-prandial sleepiness, readily agreed. Mikkel himself remained awake, watching over them in silence.

Perhaps an hour later, the kitten sat up, looking out the window beside the door. Mikkel was instantly alert. She wasn't reacting to a grossling, so what …?

He looked out, blinked, shut off the sensors without even glancing at the controls, and stepped out the door. He waited.

They were completely filthy, appearing to have rolled through several mud puddles; their faces were drawn with hunger and strain; he could smell them from twenty meters away. Since he was standing in the doorway, in their way, they perforce stopped before him, Emil to his left and Lalli to his right.

“So does this place have like a –” Mikkel pulled them to him in a bear hug that threatened to crack ribs. His heart was so full he thought it might possibly explode, and for once in his life he was utterly speechless.

In some lives, there is a second miracle.


End file.
